Auden's teaching appointment ended in 1945, but he returned to a Swarthmore classroom in November 1971. After a lecture and poetry reading on the night of November 14th, he sat down the next morning with visiting professor/fellow poet Brendan Kennelly and a group of students to answer questions and speak informally on a variety of topics, from the obvious (poetry and politics) to the surprising (drugs and detective fiction).

The College Bulletin published a transcript of this discussion in its May 1972 issue, which can be viewed as a PDF or read online by following the links below.